Sonneberg - way from Thuringia: That's the motto of Sonneberg.
Instead, the city wants to belong to Bavaria.
We visited the city and explain how a change is possible.
There it runs, this damned border, hidden in the green.
Heiko Voigt stands on the town hall tower and points to the southwest.
"It takes fifteen minutes to walk to Bavaria, and three minutes by car," he says.
Voigt, 55, is deputy mayor of the town of Sonneberg in Thuringia – and he wants to change states.
Bavaria instead of Thuringia.
When he shared this plan with those present at the New Year's reception, some thought it was a joke.
But Voigt and his comrades-in-arms are serious.
The topic isn't entirely new at the Sonneberg regulars' tables, and they've repeatedly heatedly discussed it over a beer.
But now there is political movement in the matter.
The responsible district administrator wrote to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior in a letter to the change request of many citizens.
This year there could be a referendum among those entitled to vote in the approximately 24,000 people in Sonneberg - even if the city council is still arguing.
Why all the drama?
Voigt, a regional planner with a doctorate, is now pointing in the other direction from the town hall tower, to the north, towards the forests and mountains behind Sonneberg.
"The Thuringian Forest lies between the state capital of Erfurt and us," says Voigt.
"We can't see each other - and many state politicians in Erfurt don't even think that we exist."
Sonneberg resists local government reform
At first glance, Sonneberg is a small town, as can be found in many places in Germany.
Ice cream parlor in the pedestrian zone, advertising posters for a big party, somewhere between village-family and urban-anonymous.
100 years ago they manufactured twenty percent of all toys traded worldwide here.
With the "Sonneberger Täufling" they also invented the archetype of the baby doll.
And the coat of arms – back to the topic – has long been adorned by a lion that looks confusingly similar to its two fellows on the Bavarian coat of arms.
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Would rather be Bavarian than Thuringian: the deputy mayor of Sonneberg, Heiko Voigt.
© M. Heim
The anger of many Sonnebergers is mainly related to a planned territorial reform.
The red-red-green state government in Thuringia wants to reorganize districts, municipalities and municipalities.
For a long time these were more or less theoretical discussions, but the date is slowly approaching: From 2018 the Sonnebergers would then be part of a large rural district, which Mayor Voigt apocalyptically calls “Monsterlandkreis”.
Sonneberg would probably lose the district seat – and perhaps govern from Suhl, which is a good 40 kilometers away as the crow flies, or from an even more distant city.
"Then decisions for our region will be made outside of the region in the truest sense of the word," fears Voigt.
In GDR times, the instructions came from Suhl, which should also cause stomach ache for some older people in Sonneberg.
Citizens feel Franconian
Admittedly, the administrative reform is only one chapter of this unusual flirtation with the Free State of Bavaria.
Although Sonneberg is part of Thuringia, many people feel closer to Franconia, which is just a few minutes away.
The Franconian dialect wafts through the streets of the pretty little town.
Many people in southern Thuringia go to the Kerwa to drink beer year after year - unlike the residents of Erfurt or Jena, where there is no such kind of folk festival.
Sonneberg is the only eastern district with an Aldi-Süd.
If you take the train with the Bayern-Ticket, you can get as far as Sonneberg.
And the geographic proximity to Bavaria also produces strange blossoms: "In Thuringia, students are allowed to drive mopeds from the age of 15, but not in Bavaria," says Voigt.
"Actually, they should dismount and push at the border."
In addition, there are many economic connections to Franconia – and thus to Bavaria.
Voigt counts, his answer takes 7 minutes and 28 seconds.
The short version: Sonneberg has been part of the "Metropolitan Region of Nuremberg" for several years, as the only non-Bavarian city.
Many Sonnebergers work on the other side of the border, in Coburg, Kronach or Lichtenfels.
The other way around, many people commute to work in Sonneberg.
Together with the Franconian neighboring town of Neustadt near Coburg, local transport is operated, and the municipal hospitals are under one roof across the state.
Such achievements are endangered by the planned district, says Voigt.
Change of state: is that possible?
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© MM
But is that even possible?
Change state?
In any case, the way there is rocky in Germany.
First of all, the politicians at the municipal level have to agree on this.
Then the will of the population must be sought.
Finally, the governments of Bavaria and Thuringia have to agree on a state treaty.
Oh yes, both state parliaments, the Bundestag and maybe also the Bundesrat still have to agree.
Comparable cases in recent years?
No.
On the Thuringian side, the plans of the Sonnebergers are not taken seriously.
Interior Minister Holger Poppenhäger (SPD) soon let it be known that from his point of view there was nothing to be said against moving from Coburg in Franconia to Thuringia.
The frequent misunderstandings between old Bavarians and Franconia are well known.
Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, on the other hand, announced that he could imagine a division of Thuringia.
In front of and behind the Thuringian Forest.
The problem: It was a carnival speech.
And what interest should the state government have in losing the economically strong region of Sonneberg, with one of the highest employment rates in Germany, to its rich neighbors?
Coburg and Bavaria are flattered
On the Bavarian side, people are flattered, the district administrator of Coburg has long since signaled its agreement in principle.
The Minister of the Interior uses the through ball - big surprise - to tease the government led by the Left Party in the neighboring country.
In a press release, Joachim Hermann said: "Those responsible for politics in Thuringia should think twice when districts there want to go to Bavaria.
In any case, there is no municipality in Bavaria that wants to switch to Thuringia.
Living in Bavaria means living in a place worth living in, and I take that as great praise from our neighbors if they also see it that way.”
If you ask the people on the streets of Sonneberg, you get a contradictory picture.
Surprisingly, a few have not heard of the topic at all.
The rest is divided roughly into two thirds in favor of and one third against the transition plans.
An elderly lady says with a laugh: "We've been in Franconia for a long time." Of course, this survey is not representative - but it coincides with the impression of Deputy Mayor and City Planning Director Voigt.
“Most people here have not yet fully realized the consequences of the local government reform.
But in my opinion there is a positive general mood for the change.”
In any case, the city is busy with another, sad topic this early summer.
Longtime mayor Sibylle Abel tragically passed away in May.
Voigt seems upset, he and Abel have worked together for twenty years.
The integration with Franconia and the economic upswing are also the work of the colleague.
Voigt wants to be elected mayor in August as a non-party candidate supported by the CDU.
Then, as head of the town hall, he continued to fight against the local government reform.
White sausage instead of bratwurst?
When the native Sonneberger made his plans to move over to Bavaria public at the beginning of the year, the tabloids asked enthusiastically: "Will Sonneberg soon be eating white sausage instead of bratwurst?" Voigt shook his head.
They also eat bratwurst in Upper Franconia, the Coburg version roasted on pine wood even has its own fan page on Facebook.
It's not about white-blue beer bliss, that's important to him, but about the "continuation of a very successful development in the economic region that has been reunited for over 25 years".
If you take the regional train to Lichtenfels in Franconia, you will pass the state border between Bavaria and Thuringia.
"A border has tyrannical power", Friedrich Schiller lets the emissary Stauffacher speak in the drama "Wilhelm Tell".
Of course, things aren’t quite so stately in Sonneberg.
Heiko Voigt, smiling optimistically, still hopes for a similar ending to his story.
The Rütli oath with the big neighbor.
When he strolls through the city in ten years, he says, Sonneberg will probably definitely belong to Bavaria.